May 15, 2008

JENIN, (PIC)-- Mahmoud Azzam has been held in Israeli occupation jails for more than ten years without trial or charge after Jordan refused to allow him into its territory, legal sources said on Thursday.

The lawyer of the Nafha society defending Palestinian prisoners' rights recalled that Azzam was arrested from his home on 29/10/1997 and was held in Jalama detention center for interrogation.

He added that the detainee was tortured during the 50 days of interrogation rounds and was denied access to his lawyer for three weeks.

Nothing was proven against him, which prompted the Israeli occupation authority (IOA) to order his deportation to Jordan, the lawyer said, adding that after two months in Jalama he was told of his deportation to Jordan which he refused in the beginning but was forced to accept on 28/12/1997 where the Jordanian authority refused to allow him into Jordan saying that he was Palestinian and not Jordanian.

He was then held for six months in occupation jails when the IOA tried to deport him again but was also denied entry to Jordan. In November 1999 he was deported to Gaza but the PA refused to receive him and asked for his return to his home in Jenin. However, the IOA refused and retained him in captivity till now in the Shatta central prison without trial.

The society called for immediate action to free Azzam, whose health deteriorated in jail due to his repeated hunger strikes.

Meanwhile, Abdul Nasser Farwana, the director of statistics department in the ministry of prisoners' affairs in the PA caretaker government in Gaza, announced on Wednesday that 268 of the Palestinian prisoners in occupation jails have been serving more than 15 years in captivity.